A silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material should have high image quality and excellent cost performance, and it is most popularly used as the means for reproducing a color image. In order to further improve the characteristics of the silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, extensive investigations into increasing the image quality have been carried out. In order to increase image quality, it is important to obtain excellent color reproduction, a sharp image having no blur (a high sharpness), and excellent graininess in the color print after development processing.
It is very important that the dye image thus obtained is fast to light, heat and humidity and is not faded over a long time. In recent years, the fastness of the dye image has been strikingly improved, and it has been possible to store a color print for a long tame.
Meanwhile, in order to increase the image quality in a color photographing material, extensive efforts have been made for improving sharpness and graininess, and a color negative film capable of providing a highly sensitive and sharp negative image is now available. Under such circumstances, it is anticipated that the improvement in the sharpness of a color paper will become more and more important in the future from the viewpoint of the improvement in the quality of a color print finally obtained.
In order to obtain an image having high sharpness, it is important that light for exposure is not spread over a wide range on a print face which generates fading. Known methods for preventing this spreading include the method in which a water soluble dye is used in order to prevent irradiation generated on an emulsion layer provided on a reflection type support, the method in which a coloring layer (AH) is provided in order to prevent halation, and the method in which reflection rate is raised in the vicinity of the surface of a reflection type support in order to prevent a blur in the support.
Of these methods, there is described in JP-A-3-156439 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an unexamined published Japanese patent application) which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,345 as the method for preventing a blur, the method in which a white pigment is incorporated into a waterproof resin layer covering a reflection type support in the proportion of 14% by weight or more. Further, there is described in JP-A-57-64235 and JP-A-62-187846, the method in which a hydrophilic colloid layer containing a white pigment is provided between a support and a silver halide emulsion layer.
However, there is still a problem in these methods in which a white pigment is used, in that the background is yellowed during storage over a long period of time after a processing and also that the discoloring or fading of a dye image is accelerated. Further, in the methods in which there is provided a coloring layer in which a water soluble dye and colloidal silver are present, the increase in the amount thereof used in order to obtain a higher sharpness causes a residual color on the background after processing and generates discoloring and fading on the background of a dye image due to aging, and thus further improvement is necessary.
The color image-forming method most generally used in a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material is the method in which an aromatic primary amine series color developing agent oxidized with exposed silver halide used as an oxidizing agent is reacted with a coupler to form indophenol, indoaniline, indamine, azomethine, phenoxazine, phenazine, and equivalent dyes. In such a system, the method in which a color image is reproduced by a subtractive color process is used, and generally the three color dyes formed of yellow, magenta and cyan are changed to form the color image.
Of them, a pivaloyl type yellow coupler and a benzoyl type yellow coupler have most generally been used as a yellow coupler. The former has the defect that color developing performance is low while the fastness of a dye image formed is excellent, and it is limited for meeting the acceleration and low replenishing needs in processing, which has been strongly demanded in recent years. Further, it has not yet reached a sufficiently satisfactory level in terms of the hue of the dye formed. On the other hand, the latter has the serious problem that while it has a high color developing performance, the dye formed has poor hue, and the dye image has very low fastness.
In the coupler for a color print, serious consideration is placed on the hue and fastness of the dye formed, and therefore the pivaloyl type yellow coupler is generally used. However, the pivaloyl type yellow coupler also has not yet reached a sufficiently satisfactory level in terms of the hue, and thus further improvement is desired.
In order to improve the color reproduction performance of the color print, attention is paid to the pivaloylacetanilide type coupler having an alkoxy group at the ortho position of an anilide ring. While this coupler is certainly improved to some extent in terms of the color reproduction performance, a problem still remains in terms of the fastness of the dye image.
The problem common to the pivaloyl type coupler is insufficient image fastness under the condition of a high humidity. Further, it has a problem as well in terms of light fastness after it is left under a high humidity. As the color print is stored in the environment in which light, heat and humidity are changed, the evaluation of actual fastness becomes difficult, and it is necessary to check film quality under various conditions.
Further, in recent years, there have been proposed for the improvement in color reproduction performance and color development performance, the acylacetoamide type yellow coupler having a 3- to 5-membered cyclic structure, described in European Patent EP 0,447,969A1, the malondianilide type yellow coupler having a cyclic structure, described in European Patent EP 0,482,552A1 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,958), and the acylacetoanilide type yellow coupler having a dioxane structure, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,599.